RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

On The IRS Protests Tomorrow

I get that there are some of my conservative brethren don’t agree that the tea party should protest tomorrow. They’re afraid that it will disrupt a winning narrative: the IRS targeting a vast array of American citizens based on political beliefs and religion. They’re afraid that the sight of tea partiers shouting slogans and waving Gadsden flags at IRS offices will provide the media squirrel the left needs to pivot.

As much as I love them, I disagree, with a caveat.

It was the frustration with big spending created by both parties, but especially maximized by the current administration, that successfully harnessed and packaged together citizens from all around the country under a common, big tent banner: the tea party. It was this organized expression of frustration, which geared up shortly after the 2008 election and gained steam for the 2010 midterms, that funneled thousands of new activists into work for the cause of liberty evangelism. We’re following that same timetable once again heading into a midterm year. Conservative grassroots has suffered from a malaise. It’s expected after such an election as we had, and expected from a movement the majority of which is comprised of regular Americans who need a break now and again from the soul-sucking topic that is DC practices. The tea party, tired of being targeted, tired of being called “conspiracy theorists” for being targeted, are vindicated once again.

If the thought that a protest would distract from a winning narrative then we shouldn’t have had the health care protests at all. Protests drive attention to the issue being protested. In this case, it’s the IRS and big government. Entre caveat: I don’t want to see a single sign about Obama. I don’t want to see a single sign about Biden. Or FLOTUS. Or vacations. Or anything other than the overreaching power of big government. No signs on anything other than this malicious and criminal behavior was perpetuated by a government too big to be held accountable. It was carried out behind a viel of purposeful complexity.

Barack Obama is the ring leader and figure head, but let’s be real: he’s just one in a long line of many that has driven government to this point. The problem is the cancer of statism that is eating away at our government from within. Polls measuring public opinion show that public already agrees with us. Exit polls from last year showed that Americans overwhelmingly believe the size of government is too big; they just lacked confidence in either party to curtail it.

Focusing on the messenger only excuses the message. This is where the focus must go. This is what the protests should be about: big government. Abolishing the IRS and in its place creating real tax reform.